Emerging Technologies

Artificial Intelligence has written a pop song

Humanoid robot of British company RoboThespian "blushes" during the opening ceremony of the Hanover technology fair Cebit March 9, 2014, where Britain is this year's partner country.     REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay     (GERMANY - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TELECOMS) - RTR3GC9I

The first song, “Daddy’s Car,” is a catchy, sunny tune reminiscent of The Beatles. Image: REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

Olivia Goldhill
Weekend Writer, Quartz

We already know that artificial intelligence systems can work in law firms and beat the world champion at a game of Go. Now it turns out that AI can write some pretty good pop songs, too.

Researchers at Sony have been working on AI-generated music for years, and has previously used AI to create impressive jazz tracks. But this is the first time the Sony CSL Research Laboratory has released pop music composed by AI, and the results are impressive.

The first song, “Daddy’s Car,” is a catchy, sunny tune reminiscent of The Beatles.

Loading...

The second song, a dreamy ditty called “Mr Shadow,” was created in the style of American musicians Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Cole Porter.

Loading...

The AI system, called FlowMachines, works by first analyzing a database of songs, and then following a particular musical style to create similar compositions. The final result does have a human touch, however. In the case of both songs above, French composer Benoît Carré arranged the songs and wrote the lyrics.

So perhaps humans are artistically necessary—at least for the time being. But Sony is preparing to release a complete album composed by artificial intelligence in 2017, and its plan is to create truly great AI music. Beyoncé and Taylor Swift: watch your backs.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Emerging Technologies

Related topics:
Emerging TechnologiesFourth Industrial Revolution
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Fourth Industrial Revolution is affecting economies, industries and global issues
World Economic Forum logo

Forum Stories newsletter

Bringing you weekly curated insights and analysis on the global issues that matter.

Subscribe today

Here’s why it’s important to build long-term cryptographic resilience

Michele Mosca and Donna Dodson

December 20, 2024

How digital platforms and AI are empowering individual investors

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum